Patreon FAQ

Pros

The mission is sound - find a way to pay folks that create content that is enjoyed globally. No one can fault that. The people that welcomed me were the most wonderful, welcoming people you could imagine. The pay and benefits were reasonable, and somewhat competitive.

Cons

If you work in technology, you will be laid off within 24 months. Any free thought beyond what management quietly believes is rewarded with firings. The CEO is too easily swayed - anyone who catches his ear will sway him in opposite directions without consultation The CPO thinks technology companies can just replace entire engineering teams without knowledge of what they work on There is no communication between departments about the 1, 3, and 5 year plans The CTO is non-existent in the day to day running The third round of redundancies will be coming once the recruitment company is onboarded

Advice to Management

Stop. Honestly, stop working now, and have a look at how you're handling redundancies. Consider how to run the company with the folks you have, and learn how to persuade them to your vision. Redundancy money, and signing bonuses are a phenomenal way to burn through venture capital - I'm sure that's not how you want to spend it.

Pros

- Mission is very aligned with my personal career goals and journey - People at this company are kind, empathetic, and really effing care about what they do - Decent comp, benefits, education opportunities

Cons

- Holy thrash, batman! - Layoffs sucked (still haven't solved anything with these) - Execs are all smart folks who I admire personally but they treat their capable and smart employees like they were born yesterday - Execs want to make all decisions but are very slow and too busy to micromanage - Execs are too worried about optics and not key metrics for the business

Advice to Management

- Lead by example, set a vision and stick to it - Deputize decision making - Treat your employees like adults who can get work done and take a summer Friday

Pros

Exciting and challenging work to be done. All of the tech perks (lifestyle stipend, unlimited PTO, tons of swag), but without the toxic culture. Refreshing to see how passionate everyone is about our mission. Taking action towards increased inclusivity for employees and creators.

Cons

Things change quickly, but that’s to be expected at our stage.

Pros

Exciting and challenging work to be done. All of the tech perks (lifestyle stipend, unlimited PTO, tons of swag), but without the toxic culture. Refreshing to see how passionate everyone is about our mission. Taking action towards increased inclusivity for employees and creators.

Cons

Things change quickly, but that’s to be expected at our stage.

Pros

Great benefits (healthcare, vision, dental, mental health, learning stipend, a flexible lifestyle stipend, 401 w/ match, remote/hybrid, and more!) Great culture, very welcoming and friendly people. Amazing mission focused on helping creators achieve their dreams of getting paid through their creations/content. A lot of growth which opens the door for a lot of learning in different areas. Competitive arena which makes it very dynamic which opens the door for continued development and enhancement. Working for Patreon is meaningful because one is making a positive impact on people’s lives. Core execs has made significant changes to their communication strategy. This has enabled for staff to get a clearer picture of what the exec team has on their minds and what is going on in the company looking at it holistically.

Cons

There needs to be better communication between exec team and the several teams across the company since there seems to be a disconnect in some areas across the company. There is room for improvement for collaboration between areas that have common goals/overlapping responsibilities. Exec team is often a little bit too optimistic (which is reasonable because they want to keep staff confident and optimistic), but they seem to diminish the importance of what competitors are doing, and how Patreon will overcome such challenges. As a startup, there are still not a lot of opportunities for career advancement in some areas across the company. Even though this is currently happening, I am sure that as the company keeps growing, more career advancement opportunities within the company will become available. Due to the growth the company is undergoing, some of the technical resources (engineers and product staff) have been focused on the future/growth of Patreon, which has left some teams feeling neglected because they have limited access to technical resources. Even though Patreon is currently going through a major hiring initiative, the exec team decided to change some of the core behaviors/cultural foundations of the company. Although this can be understandable because they want new staff to be onboarded onto the new culture, current staff is feeling confused because it seems like many resources are being utilized on different projects, instead of mainly focusing on attracting and hiring the best talent. Every company is going to have pros and cons, and in the case of Patreon, the pros significantly outweigh the cons. There’s no perfect company out there, especially in the startup sector. There is a lot of change, which creates turbulent waters and disgust among some of the staff. Nevertheless, we’ve got to understand that we are all in this together and are trying to get the creative class paid!

Advice to Management

Listen more to managers and their teams. We understand that you look at the company from the macro level, but we managers/teams stress something is not working/needs to be sunset for the best of the company, creators and users, please listen because they are the ones seeing how it affects stakeholders. Although there is a lot of growth going on, some staff have become confused/concerned of how exec team is juggling many big projects (hiring and changing the core behaviors). Some staff do not understand why we are not mainly focusing on hiring since this ni what the company needs the most. We all understand that the exec team has to bring confidence to the company, but it can be frustrating when exec team members diminish the importance of what the competition is doing and the external threats that affect the company. Please address what the competition is doing and what Patreon is planning on doing to overcome such challenges.